Hangin at the Langham

For the past two years, my mom and I have taken a yearly trip into Boston the week before my finals at college. It’s a really nice tradition that we’ve started and very generous of my mom to do this for me. Last year, we stayed at The Taj in Boston which was lovely and beautiful. This year, however my mom booked us a night at The Langham in Boston. Because it was around Christmas time everything was decorated in such a festive way, with Christmas trees and lights everywhere. The room was quite spacious as well, with two queen beds, a little sitting area, and a nice sized bathroom. The window was on of my favorite parts of the room because it was slightly slanted and had a gorgeous velvet curtain to cover it.

After we checked in, put our belongings in the room and rested a bit, my mom and I decided we should venture out into the 13 degree Boston weather and explore the city on out way to dinner. But, while I may live in Boston most of the year, I am not the best at navigating the city. I was able to take us from the hotel to Quincy Market, which we looked around at, but from there I was lost. We eventually just started walking in the direction that we believed the North End to be in. My mom had found a nice restaurant for us to eat at in the North and this is where our adventure began. It was a chilly walk in heels for both of us, but we were so excited to be hanging out to care that the wind was whipping our hair all around our faces. A twenty minute walk later and some sore feet and we had made it to the restaurant, Antico Forno.

After walking through the door, there was a velvet curtain we had to walk through to get into the restaurant and once through we were greeted with a rush of warm air and a smile from one of the hostesses. It was pretty busy in there, but since there were only two of us we were seated within ten minutes, which is very quick for a popular North End restaurant on a Friday night. At our table, we looked around and admired the crackling fireplace and warm lighting that surrounded us. Once our server came over, we ordered some drinks (wine for mom, water with lemon for me), and were given complimentary bread that was amazing. We ordered some calamari for an appetizer which was delicious and we ended up finishing all of it before our meals even arrived, as well as all the bread we were given. For dinner, I ordered the Linguini al Frutti di Mare which is essentially pasta with seafood (clams, mussels, shrimp, calamari). My mom ordered the Linguini con Puttanesca. We eat devoured as much of our pasta as we could because it was delicious! I unfortunately could not finish all of it since I’d eaten all that bread and calamari, so I got the rest of it wrapped up to go and brought it back to the hotel.

Once we finished dinner, my mom and I took the scenic route back to the hotel, stopping by the winter market outside Government Center. It’s essentially a little circle of wooden stalls that sell all sorts of homemade things. For example, some sell homemade hats and scarves, others sell soaps and perfumes, more sell handcrafted jewelry, and others sell food. It’s a cute little place to look around spend some time listening to live music. Although, since it was around 8 o’clock by this point and pretty cold out, we didn’t stay long. From the market, we walked back to the Langham where we put on our bathing suits and headed to the pool and hot tub for a nice relaxing night dip. The pool closed at 10, so we stayed from 9:00-9:30, during which time there were only two other people there and the hot tub really warmed me up from the cold winter air. After we left the pool area, we went into the sauna to dry off for about five minutes, and then we walked back to our room.

When we got to the room, it was a nice surprise to see some chocolates on the pillow along with the weather forecast for the next day on a pretty little card under the chocolates. After each taking a shower in the spacious bathroom, we spent the rest of the night watching Hallmark Christmas movies on TV and chatting. The next morning, we decided to have afternoon tea as a brunch. So at noon, we walked down to the lobby and into the dining area where we were seated on a couch and presented with a tea menu and our options. I had the peach tea which was nice and refreshing, while my mom went with the classic Earl Grey. There were three courses: tiny sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and mini desserts. Everything was so good and filling that I had to take the rest of the little cakes to go. Below I’ll show some photos of the different foods we were served, along with the tea (although the scones were so tempting that I didn’t get to take a photo before devouring them). While we sat and enjoyed this amazing experience, it was snowing outside, so we watched out of the large window as the snowflakes drifted down from the sky and landed heavily in the street. The snow covered the city in a blanket of quiet and white. It was quite a pretty sight to see as I sat sipping tea and eating tiny cucumber sandwiches.

Unfortunately, after tea it was time to leave my beautiful respite from school work. We checked out of the hotel and my mom drove me back to school. I brought a piece of my night with me though in the form of the leftover pasta and the tiny tea desserts. Overall, I have to say that the staff at the Langham were quite friendly and the atmosphere was very nice and festive. The only issue we had was that we were told we did not need to make a reservation for afternoon tea when we asked at check-in, but the next day when we arrived all the tables had been booked, so we were seated on the couch. It worked out well since we liked sitting at the couch, but we would have made a reservation had we known. Also, if anyone out there loves chocolate as much as I do and has the time that I did not have, there is a chocolate buffet at the Langham where you can eat as much chocolate as you like. And if you’re worried about all those extra calories, they have a nice gym to workout in. I thoroughly enjoyed my little vacation with my mom out in Boston and at the Langham, and I would recommend the hotel for those with a sweet tooth and a liking for nice atmospheres.

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2 thoughts on “Hangin at the Langham”

Maybe Nonna and I, both being chocoholics, should stay at the Langham next time we travel to MA!!!!!! Mom, Dad and brother can visit us in Boston instead of us visiting them in Longmeadow…….
Love ya, enjoyed the article. I could picture you and mom walking in the cold, soaking in the hot tub, eating pasta and teawiches and chocolate. ciao for now